The Budget Office of the Federation has explained that the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC), the agency the presidency declared fake and which is now under investigation by the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC), traces its institutional origin to the last administration of the late President Muhammadu Buhari.
Director-General of the Budget Office, Tanimu Yakubu, gave the explanation in a statement after appearing before the House of Representatives in Abuja. He said PFIPC’s roots lie in the Presidential Economic Advisory Council (PEAC) inaugurated by Buhari on October 9, 2019, and detailed how the agency found its way into the 2026 budget.
According to Yakubu, by the time the 2026 budget was being prepared, official instruments backing the council were already in place. The Accountant-General’s office had assigned it an administrative code, the Head of Service had approved its establishment and a recruitment waiver, and an applicable salary structure existed — none of which originated from the Budget Office.
“The Budget Office did not create the Council. It did not assign its code. It did not approve its establishment. It did not grant its recruitment waiver. It received official instruments and did what the law required of it: it measured their fiscal effect,” Yakubu said.
He said the council initially sought a personnel estimate of N3.85 billion for 2026, but the Budget Office disregarded that figure entirely and independently calculated N802.978 million based on the authorised establishment, the recruitment waiver, and standard costing methods. That figure, not the council’s request, was what went into the budget and was later appropriated.
Yakubu said PFIPC never received the approved funds because its promoter, Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi, could not secure Financial Clearance — the final step confirming that fiscal and regulatory conditions for recruitment had been met.
He explained that the 2026 Appropriation Bill only became law after presidential assent on March 31, 2026, and even afterward, the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission had not confirmed that PFIPC’s proposed staffing and pay complied with public-service standards. Without that clearance, no recruitment, payroll enrollment, or salary payment could lawfully occur.
“The Budget Office could calculate the cost. It could not open the gate. There was therefore no Financial Clearance. There was no lawful recruitment. There was no payroll enrollment. There was no salary payment,” he said.
Yakubu noted that the N802.978 million personnel provision, representing about 61.63 per cent of PFIPC’s total N1.3 billion appropriation, was never handed over as a lump sum in the first place — personnel funds are paid monthly, directly to verified staff on the federal payroll, a process that never began for the council.
“Not one kobo of the personnel provision could lawfully have been drawn. Not one kobo was drawn. There is no personnel expenditure to recover because there was no personnel expenditure,” he said.
The PFIPC scandal broke on June 11, 2026, when Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, publicly declared the council fake and petitioned law enforcement agencies. Adeyemi later fired back at a press conference on June 26, accusing Gbajabiamila of collecting N400 million through a proxy and demanding N200 million more to secure his appointment — allegations Gbajabiamila has denied, filing a N15 billion defamation suit against him. Adeyemi is currently in police custody over the scandal and alleged forgery, and has claimed he personally lobbied budget office officials to get the council included in the federal budget.
The Central Bank of Nigeria has also confirmed opening two domiciliary accounts linked to PFIPC — one in dollars, one in pounds — on the directive of the Accountant-General’s office, though both accounts were never funded or operated.
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